Many devices, including computers, cameras, lights, phones, radios and other equipment, use rechargeable batteries for power. These batteries typically attach to the device by mechanical latches or connections. In particular, in many items of audiovisual recording equipment, a rechargeable battery attaches to a battery mount plate which is attached to the device, which incorporates the power terminals that receive power from the battery and data terminals for communication between the battery and the device. Such battery mount plates are attached semi-permanently to the audiovisual recording equipment and provide an industry-standard mounting surface which a rechargeable battery may be quickly and easily attached to or detached from. Such industry-standard mounting surfaces include, without restriction, 3-stud mounts and V-mounts. Some rechargeable batteries may be recharged through the device, while others may be recharged through a dedicated charging device, and some batteries may be recharged either through the device or through a dedicated charging device.
Many currently available rechargeable batteries include sub-systems that enable battery management, reporting or other features referred to as smart battery features. Such smart battery features may report the current battery charge, power and other state information. Such smart battery features may also report information such as current battery load, time until the battery is charged when charging, or time until the battery is discharged when in use. Smart battery features may also allow the user to manage the battery by monitoring its output voltage, reserve power, or alerts. Dedicated charging devices may also incorporate smart battery features.
Smart battery features are usually implemented using the System Management Bus (“SMBus”) standard, which allows communication between a computer processor and computer hardware. In addition to the SMBus standard, other standards including, without restriction, the Power Management Bus (“PMBus”), Smart Battery System (“SBS”), HDQ and Inter-Integrated Circuit (“I2C”) are used by various manufacturers to allow communication between a battery and a computer processor or device. These standards may be referred to as smart battery management standards. As used herein, the term smart battery management standards also includes analogue connections that communicate only one battery attribute such as voltage and/or amperage.
Current smart battery management standards all rely on a directly wired connection between the smart battery and the device receiving the information regarding smart battery features and/or managing the smart battery. This architecture is acceptable when a single device is powered by the battery and manages the battery. In an environment, however, where the device powered by the battery is not directly attended by a user or where a user is using multiple battery-powered devices at once, this can result in a device unexpectedly shutting off as its battery runs out of power. Additionally, it prevents the use of smart battery features on devices that do not incorporate computer processors and/or displays. Current smart battery features and systems cannot report or otherwise communicate battery status to device other than a device the battery is connected to by a wired connection. Further, multiple smart batteries or smart battery systems do not aggregate the statuses of their batteries or offer an interface where a user can review the status of multiple batteries at once. This can be a problem in a workplace or other setting where multiple devices, each powered by one or more rechargeable batteries, are all continuously or intermittently operating, and the loss of power to one device can interrupt work or other tasks. Additionally, devices that do not implement fully-featured smart battery communication systems may only communicate particular attributes, such as voltage or amperage, via an analogue port or connector. The current invention solves these problems.